Industrial Workers of the World

FACTORY UNDER OCCUPATION: Save 600 jobs at Vestas! Workers staging a sit-in at the soon-to-close Vestas wind turbine plant on the Isle of Wight are being starved out by police. The police, many inside the factory and dressed in riot gear, have denied food to the workers who took over the factory offices last night, to protest about the closure of their factory. The police, operating with highly questionable legal authority, have surrounded the offices, preventing supporters from joining the sit-in, and preventing food from being brought to the protestors. source: http://www.iww.org/en/node/4778

Vestas Blades UK on the Isle of Wight is due to close on 31st July. 600 jobs will be lost immediately, many more jobs that depend on Vestas will follow. This makes no sense from a green or a labour perspective! The government has just announced a major expansion of renewable energy including wind power. We are calling on Vestas to keep the factories open, saving jobs and offering those who want to leave a better redundancy deal. We are calling on the government to intervene to save jobs at Vestas - through nationalisation if that is what it takes - to show that it is serious about saving the planet.

WHAT YOU CAN DO? * Send messages of support from yourself or your organisation to savevestas@googlemail.com. * Send a donation from your trade-union or other organisation, or make a personal donation: cheques payable to Ryde and East Wight Trades Union Council, 22 Church Lane, Ryde, Isle of Wight, PO33 2NB * Petition energy minister Ed Miliband. His e-address is ps.ed.miliband@decc.gsi.gov.uk. His phone number in his Doncaster constituency is 01302 875 462, and at Westminster, 020 7219 4778. Flood him with calls for the Government to take over the Vestas factory and keep it producing, under new management. * Organise a visible demonstration of solidarity. Take a photo with a placard that reads “Save Vestas” and email the photo to savevestas@gmail.com. source: http://savevestas.wordpress.com/

more: http://workersclimateaction.wordpress.com/

Around 20 workers at the Vestas Plant in Newport, on the Isle of Wight, occupied the top floor of offices in their factory to protest against its closure which will result in over 500 job losses. A number of climate change protesters have also set up camp outside the factory in support of the workers inside. The Vestas factory is set to shut at the end of July with the loss of 525 jobs at the blade manufacturing and research plant at Newport, and a further 100 in Southampton. The news of the job cuts came as the organisation, which is the world's largest manufacturer of wind turbines, reported a quarterly sales rise of 59% to 1.11bn euros. source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/hampshire/8160331.stm

COMMENTS “If you think we can be of any assistance, please let us know and we will do our best. Resist! Occupy! Social change not climate change.” - The Ford Visteon Workers Support Group (Enfield)

“We urge you not to place your hopes in politicians or in union bureaucrats. Workers self-organisation and Independence of action is more powerful than any lobby. Control your struggle and Do It Yourself! Direct action gets the goods.” - Cambridge Industrial Workers of the World

Maybe worth considering examples to discuss like Argentina ex-Zanon tile factory ? - for this site to become a cooperative and supply wind turbines under workers & community control. An occupied bicycle factory in Germany produced red STRIKER bikes which good folks bought in solidarity. Like the Lucas Aerospace occupation in 1970s discussed turning "swords into ploughshares" from deadly art of the State war gadgets into useful hightech wheelchairs etc using their skills & the technology then available, this skilled workforce could take over and create world's best wind turbines in best conditions for the workers and locals. Surely many climate change networks, unionists, social justice organisations etc would make their priority supporting this "green jobs" initiative. "No jobs on a dead planet" - earth worker in solidarity Viola Melbourne Australia

Capitalism and the capitalist state combined to cause climate change, and they have proved that they can and will adapt to it and turn it to their advantage. They will not, and will never provide the solution. - Patrick Rolfe http://workersclimateaction.wordpress.com/2008/09/14/social-change-not-climate-change/